just another ex-jazz-musician/proto-rapper/Jersey-Irish-poet-actor/print-junkie/film-raptor/beat-hipster-"white Negro"-rhapsodizer/ex-hippie-punk-'60s-radical-organizer's take on all things cultural, political, spiritual & aggrandizing

Thursday, January 5, 2012

WHAT THE RIGHT HATH WROUGHT

As evidenced in this headline: "Americans enjoy less economic mobility than their peers in Canada and much of Western Europe."

We already know our health is worse despite our spending twice as much on supposed healthcare (more like health insurance and medical corporations' profits) and our educational system worse (not because of teachers unions but because in those other advanced democracies teaching is a profession on a level with other professions like doctors and lawyers and paid and respected as such) and so much more, but especially that our economic inequality—the gap between the wealthy and the rest of us—is greater, actually more in line with the worst undeveloped countries (many of the developing ones are now doing better than us in this area as well).

This can all be traced back to the Reagan years and his administration's policies and the rise of the right in the Republican Party.

If only the Democrats would use these facts in a simple and coherent and unified way to gain control of Congress so they can finally reverse these trends.

(And yes, the Dems are partly to blame as well for caving in and going along when the rightwing Republicans gain power and if I had my way Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren would be president and have their own party and candidates for Congress, but peace of mind and heart in my experience comes from accepting reality as it is in the moment even when working to change it, as I hope I always am.)

The whole "take back our country" thing is the biggest crock ever. Like you Michael, and like Rachel Maddow and others, there has to be 100% vigilant ongoing point by point refutations and truth shining into th lies and pure bullshit slung by the Teapocrits and Repubes.

But what to do when an inner voice says, There are those who are working even harder to change it in the wrong direction, and they are younger, stronger, have all the resources -- as well as, alas, all the darkness hidden away in the depths of "human nature" -- on their side?

Fellow I know who works for Pacifica Radio just got back from covering the global conference on climate change in Durban.

He looked gaunt, harrowed, like someone who's just spent two weeks in a concentration camp.

"Lost twenty pounds," he reported.

"How did that happen?"

"Well, I'm a vegan, and in South Africa that gets complicated."

"But... Gandhi..."

"Yeah, that was the only answer. I ate Indian."

"And the conference?

"Unbelievably depressing. All the scientists are now in agreement, the planet's heating up even faster than anybody's worst projections. The forlorn hope now is 'mitigation', but the US is stonewalling, denying the science, blocking all efforts at mitigating the disaster that's coming."

"A Republican in the Casa Blanca probably won't help much."

"Hardly matters. Ninety percent of the blame for the situation we're in now lies squarely in the weakness of Barack Obama."

Great perspective Bob, and same to you and yours Loyeen and Robert. And Tom, I understand your friend's perspective and there is no doubt in my mind that the tipping point has been reached and the climate change occurring will only get worse for a long time. But history, even geological history, shows that unexpected events and circumstances can arise that once again allows for survival, even if it changes in ways that look little like the past. In other words, I believe in the power of the universe, whether it be the desire of genes to reproduce themselves and extend their presence on earth, or elsewhere, or to adapt in order to do that, etc. But in the short run (which cou;d be a few centuries!), it looks like it's going to be a bumpy ride.